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Content type: Explainer
IntroductionThe emergence of large language models (LLMs) in late 2022 has changed people’s understanding of, and interaction with, artificial intelligence (AI). New tools and products that use, or claim to use, AI can be found for almost every purpose – they can write you a novel, pretend to be your girlfriend, help you brush your teeth, take down criminals or predict the future. But LLMs and other similar forms of generative AI create risks – not just big theoretical existential ones – but…
Content type: Advocacy
In an increasingly digitised world, automation, artificial intelligence and sensitive data processing present new and rapidly shifting challenges which underscore the urgent need for states to ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities are explicitly addressed and centred when it comes to the use of data and technology. Digital technologies can offer important opportunities for accessibility and the realisation of human rights of persons with disabilities, but can also present…
Content type: Video
Links- Andres Freund's Mastodon - where he revealed the backdoor: - Read more in Ars Technica's article about it - Read more in The Verge's article - Read more in Wired's article about it - Check out this excellent and very helpful infographic- The XKCD comic we mention
Content type: Advocacy
As part of our campaign 'The End of Privacy in Public' and our wider work monitoring developments of facial recognition technology (FRT) in the UK, we continue to to challenge the government, the police and the private sector regarding their unfettered roll out of FRT in the UK.To this end, we co-signed a letter sent on 4 June 2024, alongside UK civil society organisations campaigning against the use of facial recognition, to retailers across the UK calling on them to not use live FRT within…
Content type: Advocacy
As part of our campaign 'The End of Privacy in Public' and our wider work monitoring developments of facial recognition technology (FRT) in the UK, we continue to to challenge the government, the police and the private sector regarding their unfettered roll out of FRT in the UK. In May 2024, we co-signed a letter with a coalition of UK based NGOs regarding a recent investigation that exposed The Metropolitan Police's (the Met) use of website PimEyes. PimEyes acts as a facial recognition ‘…
Content type: Long Read
Social media is now undeniably a significant part of many of our lives, in the UK and around the world. We use it to connect with others and share information in public and private ways. Governments and companies have, of course, taken note and built fortunes or extended their power by exploiting the digital information we generate. But should the power to use the information we share online be unlimited, especially for governments who increasingly use that information to make material…
Content type: Long Read
Table of contentsIntroductionWeighing the (potential) benefits with the risksPrivacy rights and the right to healthThe right to healthPrivacy, data-protection and health dataThe right to health in the digital contextWhy the drive for digitalImproved access to healthcarePatient empowerment and remote monitoringBut these same digital solutions carry magnified risks…More (and more connected) dataData leaks and breachesData sharing without informed consentProfiling and manipulationTools are not…
Content type: Opportunities
The attached Terms of Reference lay out the details of Privacy International (PI)'s call for a five day consultancy to produce a report on the use of technologies and personal data for purposes of surveillance and/ or other repressive and authoritarian practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Israel.The deadline to submit applications is 18:00 BST 31 July 2024.
Content type: Opportunities
The attached Terms of Reference lay out the details of Privacy International (PI)'s call for a five day consultancy to produce a report on the use of technologies and personal data for purposes of surveillance and/ or other repressive and authoritarian practices in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.The deadline to submit applications is 18:00 BST 31 July 2024.
Content type: People
Tara is a Legal Officer at Privacy International. She works on legal advocacy and supports PI’s litigation efforts in the areas of surveillance, the authoritarian use of technology and social and economic justice. Tara was admitted as an attorney in South Africa in March 2018, and holds a Master of Laws (LLM), Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and undergraduate degrees in law and political science. Before joining PI, Tara worked as a human rights attorney in South Africa, specialising in information…
Content type: Long Read
In 2024, Privacy International continued to produce real change by challenging governments and corporations that use data and technology to exploit us.Since the beginning of the year, we’ve achieved some big wins and would like to share them with you.Take a look below for a quick overview of the results we produced or contributed towards, by season.Winter & Spring 2024New EU regulation empowers consumersOn 17 January 2024, the European Parliament adopted the Directive on empowering…
Content type: Advocacy
Generative AI models cannot rely on untested technology to uphold people's rightsThe development of generative AI has been dependent on secretive scraping and processing of publicly available data, including personal data. However, AI companies have to date had an unacceptably poor approach towards transparency and have sought to rely on unproven ways to fulfill people's rights, such as to access, rectify, and request deletion of their dataOur view is that the ICO should adopt a stronger…
Content type: Advocacy
At PI we have been observing with concern the rapid expansion of technologies in educational settings, which has included a wide array of tools that allow the surveillance of students and academic staff, to the detriment of their privacy and academic freedom. We consider this upcoming report as an essential platform to examine the intricate interplay between academic freedom, freedom of expression, and surveillance conducted by both public and private entities through Education…
Content type: Advocacy
While PI recognises the threats posed by cybercrime, PI reiterates the need both for a narrow scope for the proposed Convention, focusing solely on core cyber-dependent crimes, as well as for effective safeguards throughout the entire treaty to ensure human rights are respected and protected, especially in the areas of privacy and freedom of expression. Throughout the negotiations most of proposals by Member States and other stakeholders aimed at restricting the scope of the treaty and…
Content type: Opportunities
Full time and permanent from London officeSalary: £39,520 full time and permanent from London officeBenefits: 26 days annual leave (plus bank holidays), generous workplace pension, wellbeing support, resources for learning & development, and we can offer a modest relocation fund.Join us: You’re curious about how technologies affect power and shape the future. You’re an advocate who wants to speak out for change with a voice that is both nuanced and engaging. You want to help…
Content type: Video
Links - Read more about PI's work on encryption- Matt Blaze and crypto.com; you can now find Matt at mattblaze.org - More about ITAR and the export of cryptography- More about France's ban on encryption ending in this 1999 article from the Register- More about the Data Encryption Standard - Find out more about the Clipper Chip or take a look at this NY Times article from 1994 (paywalled)- Matt Blaze's flaw in the Clipper Chip- NSA Data Center and NSA holding data- An old…
Content type: News & Analysis
Is the AI hype fading? Consumer products with AI assistant are disappointing across the board, Tech CEOs are struggling to give examples of use cases to justify spending billions into Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and models training. Meanwhile, data protection concerns are still a far cry from having been addressed.
Yet, the believers remain. OpenAI's presentation of ChatGPT was reminiscent of the movie Her (with Scarlett Johannsen's voice even being replicated a la the movie), Google…
Content type: Long Read
Sports are a huge part of daily life for billions around the world, a fundamental aspect of the rich tapestry of the human experience.Attending a major sporting event can be a formative experience in someone’s life, as a place to share in a communal culture.Increasingly we have seen surveillance, and especially mass surveillance measures, being introduced at sports events impeding the enjoyment particularly of the right to privacy and right to participate in sporting life.When we saw that the…
Content type: News & Analysis
On 15 May 2024, a London Administrative Court handed down its judgment in the case of ADL & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department, just two months after another court judgment and a ruling of the UK's data protection authority (ICO). The four Claimants in this latest case (including asylum seekers and survivors of trafficking) were challenging the UK Home Office's policy of placing people released from immigration detention under 24/7 GPS surveillance - either by shackling them…
Content type: Long Read
IntroductionFor years PI has been exposing and advocating against the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) and the grave threats it poses to our rights. This highly invasive technology is paving the way to a dystopian, biometric surveillance state, where everyone is identified and tracked everywhere they go, in real time, as they move through public spaces during their everyday lives. Furthermore, this is taking place within a democratic vacuum, without any specific legislation pertaining…
Content type: Advocacy
The United Nations (UN) Committee on the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) has published a damning "Report on follow-up to the inquiry concerning the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" which calls upon the United Kingdom (UK) to take action against the human rights risks posed by the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for automated decision-making in the social security system in order to decide who can receive benefits. Published in…
Content type: Advocacy
Privacy International (PI) welcomes the opportunity to provide input to the forthcoming report the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related tolerance to the 56th session of Human Rights Council which will examine and analyse the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and non-discrimination and racial equality, as well as other international human rights standards.AI applications are becoming a part of everyday life:…
Content type: Report
The methodology employed for this report consists primarily of in-depth interviews held with grassroots political workers and representatives of collectives. The researchers interviewed 14 individuals from various social justice causes such as womens’ rights, climate change, transgender rights, students’ rights and the right to universal internet access in Pakistan. The experiences they have shared with the interviewers along with the real-time developments in the country’s law and order…
Content type: News & Analysis
In a significant and forceful decision, on 1 March 2024 the UK's Data Protection Authority found that the UK Government's GPS tagging of migrants arriving to the UK by small boats and other "irregular" routes was unlawful.
The decision comes as a result of Privacy International's complaint filed in August 2022 against the GPS tagging policy, which alleged widespread and significant breaches of privacy and data protection law. Our complaint relied extensively on anonymous testimonies of…
Content type: Advocacy
Privacy International had suggested the Human Rights Committee consider the following recommendations for the UK government:Review and reform the IPA 2016 to ensure its compliance with Article 17 of the ICCPR, including by removing the powers of bulk surveillance;Abandon efforts to undermine the limited safeguards of the IPA 2016 through the proposed Investigatory Powers Amendment Bill;Refrain from taking any measures that undermine or limit the availability of encrypted communications or other…
Content type: Advocacy
Privacy International (PI), Big Brother Watch (BBW), StopWatch, CopWatch, Defend Digital Me, Liberty and Statewatch have written to Home Secretary James Cleverly to raise concerns over the danger posed to UK society by Facial Recognition Technology (FRT).In a letter sent on 18 January 2024, the signatories raised concerns over the escalating use of FRT and warned the Home Secretary that "The indiscriminate use of this dystopian biometric technology to identify people in public spaces is a form…
Content type: Advocacy
Our submission focussed on the evolving impacts of (i) automated decision-making, (ii) the digitisation of social protection programmes, (iii) sensitive data-processing and (iv) assistive technologies in the experiences and rights of people with disabilities.We called on the OHCHR to:Examine the impact that growing digitisation and the use of new and emerging technologies across sectors has upon the rights of persons with disabilities;Urge states to ensure that the deployment of digital…
Content type: Guide step
DNS level content blocking prevents your device from connecting to known domains that will serve you unwanted ads and track you across all different apps and browsers on your device.
DNS or 'Domain Name System' is basically the 'phone book for the internet'. On the internet, all your requests to access websites are routed to IP addresses. Since IP addresses are sets of numbers and hard to remember, we usually address hosts by their much easier to remember host-name (e.g. privacyinternational.…
Content type: Guide step
Ad Blockers aim to prevent your browser from connecting to Ad servers and loading ads on webpages you are visiting. They can also block some parts of webpages that likely display ads. Blocking ads and connections to ad servers can help minimise the amount of data that the Adtech industry collects about you for targeted advertising.
Warning: Using an ad-blocker may cause some pages to display incorrectly or not at all. This guide also shows how you can modify the Ad Blocker's behaviour to allow…